


The Clock Stops Turning, The World Keeps Burning

by Pixie



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-07-24
Updated: 2013-08-04
Packaged: 2017-12-21 06:07:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/896735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pixie/pseuds/Pixie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The war clock may have stopped, but a whole new fight begins for Newton and Hermann.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

The war clock may have stopped, but the work certainly hasn't. Newton and Hermann spend every day in their lab, preparing for the possibility of the kaiju returning. It's a slim chance they will, but as Hermann says, improbable is not impossible, so they record every little detail they skirted over during the war.

Funding pours in from unlikely places – donors who remain paranoid that the war isn't over just yet, and they manage to move from the base over to the mainland. It's a small building, but the lab is bigger and Hermann is grateful for the ability to work far away from whatever bits of kaiju Newton has ordered in this week. They don't have lives outside of this – how could they, when the past ten years have revolved around their work – so they pick a building with bedrooms, kitchens and showers. There's space for more than the two of them, and Mako in particular sets up a temporary base there. She's still adjusting to the drift with Raleigh in way that reminds Newton and Hermann that there are some things they really need to deal with, but instead they just bicker and try to put it out of mind.

It's perfect, for a while. Newton gets the joy of international stardom, whilst Hermann gets the chance to work in peace on some of the more abstract parts of his theories. Locked away in their lab, neither man notices the news. Until one morning when Newton walks into the lab to find it empty.

He waits around for an hour, wondering if Hermann's leg is playing up, but when there's still no sign he races up to the other man's bedroom and begins banging on the door. “Hermann? Hermann, are you in there?” There is only silence from the other side. “Hermann, answer me, man!” Mako pokes her head around the door, concerned.  
“Newton?”  
“Hey, you can do some crazy awesome stuff, right? Can you just, like, I dunno, kick this door down for me?” He scratches the back of his head awkwardly. She folds her arms and sighs. “Are you panicking?”  
“Yes, I'm panicking – Hermann's not answering me and he's not in the laboratory, and I...” He barely notices that Mako has turned back into her room and is now walking towards the door with a key. “...wait, what?”  
“Master key.”  
“Why do you even have that?”  
“Because our landlord doesn't trust either of you with it.” That's fair, Newton thinks, and bounces anxiously beside her as the lock clicks open.

The room is dark, and Mako flicks the light switch on. Furniture has been turned over, papers strewn over the floor and sitting in the middle of the room, bloodied at one end, is Hermann's cane.


	2. Chapter 2

Mako drops to her knees beside the cane, her eyes flicking over the blood patterns, hoping she can discern something - anything - from it. She's never studied this, but a lifetime of fighting will teach anyone the basics. She smiles wryly – the blood almost certainly didn't come from Hermann, but it was probably caused by him. “Newt!” she says, turning round. “Come...” Her voice trails off as she notices his face.

It's white, paler than it had been after his first drift with a kaiju brain and he's perfectly still, the only movement a slight tremor in his hands. “Newt?” she asks softly. He still doesn't respond – doesn't even look at her, his eyes fixed on the cane. Something twists in her chest, a fear she hadn't allowed herself to feel until now. She stands up, putting her body between him and the blood, but his eyes don't move, don't even register the change. It's only when she reaches out, her hand touching his shoulder, that he looks up, startled. “Newt?” she says again, stepping in closer, her hand trailing down his arm and taking hold of his. “Are you alright?”  
“Mako,” he says, his voice shaking, and then it starts – the frantic speech patterns she'd expected of him. “Hermann – I...I didn't hear? How could I not hear? I didn't even notice – I mean, fuck, how the hell did anyone – why is there so much blood, there's so much blood and I...”She doesn't interrupt, just lets him talk whilst she leads him out of the room, feeling the tight grip of his hand in hers. It feels like a drowning man clinging to an offered rope, she finds herself thinking, and turns back to him.

“Newton,” she says quietly, but the words keep on coming, a steady stream of panic. His voice climbs in pitch, his breathing quickening and with horror she realises he's on the verge of hysteria. Almost without thinking she steps forward, pulling him close, and she can feel him almost give way in her arms, his legs shaking, his hands desperately clawing into her back as though she's the only real thing left in the world. She focuses on keeping her voice calm, her hands steady, on being a fixed point. “We'll find him”, she repeats and repeats in his ear. “We'll find him, and they will pay.”


	3. Chapter 3

Mako calls Herc, who is still at the Shatterdome. She keeps telling him just to take a break, just to let someone else take over for a while – even Tendo has had a brief holiday, on her suggestion. But the new lines forming on his face each day speak of the work he has to do, the arguments he has to keep having. If there was anyone else to call, she would do, but there isn't, and she doesn't.

“Hey Mako,” he says, his voice rough from lack of sleep.  
“Hey Herc,” she says. “I'm sorry for ringing.”  
“It's okay. If it's you, I know it's important. What is it?”  
“Hermann's missing.”  
“Missing?”  
“Taken.” She can see Herc's eyes searching the room behind her. “Newton's fine,” she says, and brushes the hair out of her eyes. “Well, fine as in still here. Not sure about the rest.” There's a sense of weariness between them, of shared battles and sunken memories.  
“What happened?”  
“From what I can tell? There wasn't a break-in to the building, just to his room. So it's someone who had access, and someone who didn't have an interest in Newton.” She knows that Herc will understand her point – that had it been her or Raleigh breaking in, they would have been capable of taking both men should they have wanted to.  
“I'll look into it. And Mako? Hold tight.”  
“You too, sir.” They hang up at the same time, and as soon as it's disconnected, she dials Raleigh.

His face reflects the concern in hers, and when he speaks, it's with an edge she knows her own voice holds.  
“What's causing our worry?” he asks, and she can't help but smile at the strangeness of the question.  
“Hermann is. Someone's taken him. Can you come over?”  
“Newton?”  
“With me."  
“On my way.” The screen goes dark, and she stands up, pausing for a moment to compose herself before she goes to see Newton.

She finds him sitting outside of Hermann's room, a cold cup of coffee clutches tightly between his hands. “Newt?” she says softly, before sliding down the wall and sitting next to him.  
“Oh, hey Mako, didn't see you there – I'm just thinking and trying to work out some of the things that might have happened and I thought that if I came and saw the scene for myself then maybe I'd get a better...”  
“Or you're worrying.”  
“Or I'm worrying.” He throws a half-grin her way. “I'm worrying. I just – fuck, at least with the kaiju I could figure stuff out about them, but what the hell do I do now?”  
“Figure stuff out,” she says, echoing him back. “You're a scientist, look for patterns. I don't think this was random.”  
“Patterns. Right. Maths. Hermann's job, you mean? He always told me to leave it to -”  
“You drifted,” she says, and Newton just stares. “I'm sure you can figure it out.” She stands up, all poise, and starts to walk away.  
“Mako?” he shouts after her, and she turns. “What do you mean, you drifted?”  
“You don't think Raleigh was always so good at wielding a sword, do you?” And with that, she's gone, leaving Newt next to the empty room.  
“Patterns. Right.”


End file.
